CHAPTER SEVEN
THE ARRAY OF DREAMS
Throughout history, scholars who studied dreams have created classification systems to represent the different types that they witnessed. Reviewing these is fascinating, as it clearly reflects how our understanding of and relationship to dreams has shifted throughout time and across cultures. For example, the fifth-century scholar Macrobius put forth a five-fold division of dreams in his Commentary on the Dream of Scipio. His classification system held sway for quite a while, including throughout the subsequent medieval period. It included three types of predictive dreams: visio (prophetic dreams that come true), oraculum (dreams that reveal the future), and somnium (enigmatic dreams that require interpretation to discern their meaning). It also included two types of non-predictive dreams: visum (which feature the visitation of apparitions) and insomnium (nightmares, thought to be catalyzed by either physical or mental stress). Although we currently don’t have a formal categorization system that everyone uses, what follows is a general sketch of the types of dreams that many people have, and the way that they are generally classified today. Given the significant role that three of these — nightmares, lucid dreams, and somatic dreams — play in the lives of many individuals, each of these will also be highlighted in more detail in subsequent chapters.
Recurring Dreams
As their name implies, these are ones that feature the same, or a very similar, situation repeating itself across numerous dreams. Recurring dreams may occur in a concentrated time period. Or, for some people, these dreams repeat throughout extended periods of their lives, with some finding themselves having dreams similar to the ones that they had when they were children. Recurring dreams are pretty common, with a majority of adults surveyed reporting that they’ve had them. Often, but not always, recurring dreams have negative or unpleasant tones or themes. For some people, they may be so upsetting that they are experienced as nightmares that periodically or regularly occur. It would seem that a recurring dream may be a clarion call to something toward which our psyche wants us to pay attention. They may reflect something unresolved that’s calling for healing.
That said, there are different schools of thought as to why we may have them. For example, from a Jungian perspective, these dreams may reflect the cast-off parts of ourselves that are trying to gain our attention, so that we can integrate them and feel more unified. The Threat Stimulation Theory proposed by neuroscientist Antti Revonsuo suggests that these dreams give us the repeated opportunity to rehearse and refine the ways that we would face and overcome obstacles in waking life. All the while, those who suffer from PTSD may have recurring dreams in which they may continually relive their traumatic experience while they are sleeping.
Telepathic Dreams
Telepathic dreams are similar to precognitive dreams (see next page) in that both are considered to be parapsychological phenomena not able to be currently explained by science. And yet, they differ from each other. A telepathic dream is one in which a person is able to psychically transmit information to another, which then appears in that person’s dreams. Sigmund Freud actually gave a nod to the idea in his paper “Dreams and Telepathy,” although he supposedly never actually acknowledged belief in the idea. There are numerous anecdotal and clinical accounts of its occurrence. There’s also a famous pilot study that took place at a 1971 Grateful Dead concert in Port Chester, New York. Thousands of attendees were invited to “send” thoughts of randomly selected images that were projected on a screen at the concert to a skilled dreamer miles away. Upon awakening, the dreamer reported seeing oneiric images that actually had an impressive correspondence with the art that was mentally projected by the concertgoers.
Telepathic dreams were the focus of ten years of study by esteemed dream researchers Montague Ullman, MD, and Stanley Krippner, PhD, at the Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. Beginning in the early 1960s, they conducted numerous research studies, eventually publishing seven articles in medical journals. While some of their participants did exhibit these paranormal dreams, given that — as they noted — it’s hard to determine such a phenomenon through the scientific method, their findings weren’t fully conclusive, and were difficult to replicate. One of the interesting discoveries that emerged from their research was the existence of an environmental variable that seemed to affect outcomes; telepathic dreams were found to be more frequent at times when there was less sunspot activity and fewer electrical storms.
Precognitive Dreams
This is the type of dream in which you envision an event that has yet to occur, but which eventually does so in the future. It focuses upon a happening that you had no other way of knowing about, except through your oneiric visions. Some people consider themselves to be able to foretell the future in their dreams, while others may not consider their dreams to be precognitive until after an event they dreamed about manifests. Precognitive dreams may be more commonplace than many would believe. Surveys have suggested that about half of the general public reports that they’ve had at least one.
Some argue against the possibility of being able to see the future, whether in waking life or dreams. They note that perhaps it’s just probability and coincidence. Yet, others — notably those who have had them, and those who believe in an understanding of time informed by quantum theory — swear them to be a valid phenomenon. While a nascent arena, research studies by Ullman and Krippner looked at this realm, finding that some subjects were able to dream of pictures, randomly selected by another research participant, which they had not previously before seen while awake.
While this may sound like a new-age precept, precognitive dreams are a subject that has been considered for millennia. In fact, in On Prophesying by Dreams, Aristotle discusses them. He doesn’t necessarily support their veracity, offering that they may just be a coincidence, and yet he doesn’t fully refute them either. And as we saw earlier, throughout the Middle Ages, people believed that certain dreams — such as those classified as visio or oraculum — contained insights into the future. One of the more famously cited precognitive dreams was had by Abraham Lincoln. In his dream, which the sixteenth U.S. president recounted to his wife and friends, he saw a casket being drawn by a white horse marking an assassination of a president. Thirteen days later, he was shot and killed.
Nightmares
Nightmares are bad dreams, those in which we find ourselves feeling threatened or deeply upset. They may provoke anxiety and fear, and their powerful emotional salience wakes us up. Given that we are often roused while right in the midst of one, it’s no wonder that we may remember them, and that they may stay with us throughout the day (and for some people, throughout their whole life). Nightmares generally occur in the early morning hours, when we’re spending more time in REM sleep.
Nightmares are most common in preschoolers, with children finding that they experience them less frequently as they enter their preteen years. Teenage girls report having them more frequently than boys their age. In children, the figures that pose a threat usually appear as monsters, ghouls, or animals, while in adults, they often take the form of other people.
It’s thought that those who are more sensitive and have thinner personal boundaries have more vivid nightmares. When we are experiencing periods of helplessness in our waking life, nightmares may be more frequent. However, as upsetting as nightmares are, they are completely normal, with most everyone having them. That is, unless they happen frequently enough to cause significant distress, disrupt our sleep, and leave us with a fear of sleeping. If this is the case, they may be classified as a nightmare disorder, for which consulting a doctor may be beneficial as a means of alleviation. For much more on nightmares, see chapter 8. For information specific to children, see chapter 19.
Night Terrors
Night terrors, also known as sleep terrors, are something that many small children experience. By late adolescence, most who have had them seem to outgrow them. That said, some adults who experience traumatic events and have PTSD-informed nightmares may have night terrors. While the name may have you think that they are a type of nightmare, they actually are quite different. They occur in stage 3 SWS deep sleep, usually during the first third to half of the night. This is in contrast to nightmares, which occur during REM sleep, closer to early morning. Night terrors are sometimes accompanied by sleepwalking. No one is yet certain as to why they occur.
It can be very upsetting to experience your child having a night terror. However, rest assured that they are quite normal — estimates have it that about 40 percent of children do so. Night terrors are characterized by the sleeper sitting upright, often screaming or shouting, exhibiting a frightened expression. And while they are animated and appear to be awake, they are actually not. In fact, it’s rather difficult to awaken someone from a night terror, given they are in quite a deep sleep. And it’s not something that you likely want to do, as many experts suggest it’s better to let a person sleep through it. Most people will have little memory of it happening the following morning. If night terrors are a challenging issue for your child, one strategy suggests waking them up a half-hour before they usually happen, so as to try to avoid their occurrence. Of course, if it’s something that’s of concern, speak to their pediatrician.
Lucid Dreams
One of the key features of a dream is that we’re not actually aware that we’re dreaming during them. It’s only when we awaken that we become cognizant that we moved through a whole world of visions and experiences. Not so with lucid dreams. In these, while you are dreaming, you are conscious that you are actually dreaming. For some, a lucid-dream experience involves being aware you’re in a dream, while for others they may also find themselves with the ability to control factors, including the environment, characters, actions, and more. While this may seem like something straight out of a modern sci-fi movie, lucid dreaming has quite ancient roots. Aristotle noted, “When one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which tells us that what presents itself is but a dream.” The Greco-Roman physician Galen recommended lucid dreams as a form of therapy.
Lucid dreaming isn’t as uncommon as some may think. In fact, a 2016 meta-analysis — a technique which combines data from numerous research studies — found that over 50 percent of people had noted that they had at least one lucid dream in their lifetime. Lucid dreaming is now being used by some in the psychology field to help clients who struggle with nightmares and PTSD, as well as to inspire greater creativity. For much more on lucid dreaming, see chapter 9.
Somatic Dreams
Throughout history, one of the types of dreams that was accorded with a lot of attention were those we’ve come to call somatic dreams. These are dreams in which we may gather awareness into the condition of our physical body, as well as connect to healing insights. Given that the prevailing paradigm of medicine doesn’t emphasize a connection between the body and mind, somatic dreams are not something that currently garners the attention that they did in the past. Still, throughout history, and in cultures throughout the world, turning to one’s dreams for both diagnostic and therapeutic messages was quite common. It’s not only a type of dream that people recognized, but one that physicians honored and encouraged; in some societies — like that of the ancient Greco-Roman civilization — their value was so heralded that they created sanctuaries where people would go to have healing sleep and dreams. (For more on these dream temples, see here.)
Perhaps you’ve had somatic dreams. These are the ones in which you realize that your dreams are carrying forth messages that either point you toward understanding the source of dis-ease in your body and/or curative approaches that you can take to enhance your well-being. Additionally, sometimes somatic dreams leave us with strong sensations in our physical bodies, perhaps as a means of drawing attention to certain areas to which we should pay attention. (For much more on somatic dreams, see chapter 10.)
Big Dreams
Sometimes our dreams feel mundane, whereas other times they feel quite interesting and fascinating. And sometimes they exceed even that; they are highly memorable, often experienced as if they contained some very significant information or powerful lessons that we, or perhaps others, need to heed. These are what are referred to as “big dreams,” a term coined by Carl Jung. Big dreams are the ones that also stick with us and we can’t shake. They are the ones that feature heightened visual imagery that becomes etched into our memory. They are the ones that may immediately come to mind when someone asks you about any important dreams you’ve had in your life. They are the ones that may be remembered as being filled with powerful archetypes, experienced as if they are really tapping us into the collective unconscious.
Big dreams may be upsetting ones, experienced as nightmares. Or they may be joyous and revelatory ones. Cultures throughout time speak of big dreams, those that have shifted the course of people, groups, and history. Some believe that big dreams extend beyond those that have personal significance to us as individuals, to those that are envoys of insights and wisdom for the community. They connect us to something bigger, and have us feel as if we’re a part of something larger than just ourselves.
Hypnagogia and Hypnopompia
You know those flashes of imagery that burst forth in your mind’s eye when you’re lying in bed ready to go to sleep? They have a name. Known as hypnagogia (from the Greek hypnos for “sleep” and agogeus for “leader”), these dreamlike visions, which occur in that liminal state as you drift off to slumber, often feel somewhat hallucinatory. Different than in regular dreams, in which we may find ourselves actively playing a role, in hypnagogia, we have a sense that we are more like observers than participants. Hypnagogic images tend to flicker and have a kaleidoscopic quality, and the sequence of their appearance seems to lack structural coherence.
While they may feel trippy, they are quite normal and experienced by a majority of people. (That said, if they cause you anxiety, talk to a health-care practitioner.) As striking as they are, we often can’t remember them upon awakening, and only recall them if we interrupt them while they are occurring to write them down. One of the most famous proponents of hypnagogia was Salvador Dalí, who used these visions for artistic inspiration. Calling his technique “slumber with a key,” he would sit in a chair with a key nestled in his closed palm and allow himself to nod off to sleep. When he did, and his muscles relaxed, the key would drop upon a plate he placed below his hand. The resulting clanging noise would wake him up, upon which time he reflected back upon the hypnagogic images that he just had, and used them as creative fodder.
Akin to hypnagogia is a phenomenon known as hypnopompia. Rather than occur between waking and sleeping, the hypnopompic state occurs between sleeping and waking. Like in hypnagogia, one may have visions that seem strange and extraordinary (hence why they are often referred to as “hallucinations”). It is sometimes accompanied by sleep paralysis, wherein you may perceive you are awake and yet your body is unable to move. Hypnopompic states seem to be less frequently experienced than hypnagogic ones.